In Setting the Table, Danny Meyer's endlessly interesting 2008 book about hospitality, the now-global restaurateur explained his reason for banning smoking at Union Square Cafe in 1990; 12 years ahead of a 2002 New York City law. He did so on his own for a variety of reasons, including the fact that smoke drifts to the dining detriment of non-smokers. As he put it, “It's my opinion that you can do anything you want in your own place of business. I didn't need a law.”
Back in the late 1990s when he was Vice Chairman at Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson had a ready answer when asked what worried him, or what kept him up at night (full disclosure: yours truly worked at GS from 1997 to 2001). At the time Goldman had roughly 10,000 employees, and Paulson's biggest fear was that the errors of one or two bad apples could bring the financial powerhouse down in total.
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